NCR submerged, yet again

Unless India invests in green urban infra, the future of cities is dark and grey

The National Capital Region (NCR), including Delhi and neighbouring districts of Uttar Pradesh, was flooded on Wednesday after a spell of unrelenting rainfall. The millennium city of Gurugram (Haryana) and the National Capital of Delhi were the worst-affected. Entire stretches of roads and underpasses were flooded; homes were inundated; and commuters were caught in traffic snarls that took hours to untangle. The appalling state of affairs showed, yet again, the result of poorly thought-out urban planning and design, weak urban stormwater infrastructure, and lack of monsoon preparedness (desilting and unclogging of drains).

As episodes of short duration-but intense rainfall increase due to the climate crisis, urban flooding incidents will rise. To tackle the challenge, cities have to rethink the development paradigm. Instead of investing only in inflexible grey infrastructure (drains, pumps, and outfalls), they must invest in flexible green infrastructure (lakes, floodplains or parks, forests), which absorb storm water, reduce runoff volume and speed, thus, reducing flood risk. Preliminary findings of an ongoing research by Wri-india indicate that 35% (428 sq km) of new development within 20 km of the city centre (2000-15) in the nation’s 10 top cities — Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, Surat — has been on low-lying and high-recharge potential zones. Unsurprisingly, these cities have seen multiple flood events in the last five years.

India’s cities are the nation’s political, economic, and cultural nerve centres. To improve their resilience, planners must prioritise water-sensitive urban design and planning, prepare drainage master plans, identify high-risk areas, and invest in green infrastructure. Otherwise, the future of India’s cities, as NCR showed on Wednesday, is dark and bleak.